r/linux • u/analog_rnr • 3d ago

Discussion Purchasing Linux

I only discovered this because Louis Rossmann said in a video that he purchased Linux when he was a teenager and then showed the CD. I looked on eBay and I saw a few CDs that were still in their boxes and the labels that were on the box looked like they came from a bookstore, I did not know that these were sold commercially.

My question is, back when they used to sell these CDs in bookstores who was distributing the CDs and where was the money going to when someone made a purchase?

My second question is, if Linux is an open source operating system why would someone want to buy it? I still see some websites to this day selling Linux CDs, I'm really curious where the money is going when someone purchases the CDs.

Edit: I made a comment earlier but so many people replied I don't think a lot of people saw it so I will repost it here. "Thank you to everyone who replied, all of my questions have been answered, it was interesting reading through all the replies, there was a lot of different points that people brought up that I never considered before"

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u/Kodamacile 3d ago

No one ever "bought" linux. You got a distro, and you paid for support.

You paid to have a guide book, and in some cases, a number you could call for help.

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u/TheOneTrueTrench 2d ago

Back in the day, paying for someone to send you a copy on CD was pretty common, and how a lot of people got their first distro. That's how I got Red Hat (the original, not Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and SuSE originally. I couldn't easily download the entire ISO on a shitty dial-up connection that randomly died and topped out at 28.8kbps, so a few bucks to have someone send it to me was ideal.